when bananas get arrested.

Published in The Post-Star (G1)

1/5/06

Something is slightly surreal -- and unnerving -- about trying to interview a room packed with 15 television characters whose costumes range from a murderous meatcutter to a giant banana made of old mattress foam.

Where do you start?

Try the one wearing the freaky leather-and-sheepskin mask and curly brown wig. His face is hard to read through the small slits of the mask, so you greet him with polite caution and a simple question: "Who are you?"

His answer is as enigmatic as the show itself.

"I'm Clay. I mostly just try to kill the raccoon on my farm. It kills chickens," he says in a slow, flat voice. The others nod their heads solemnly.

Um ... are these guys for real?

That question has been getting asked a lot lately.

This is the cast of "The Ravacon," a late-night show on the local WNCE-TV8 cable network. It features a group of young South Glens Falls actors in a bizarre blend of comedy sketches, fight scenes, and sci-fi style animation sequences set to music.

"It's a mix of genres. There's really nothing else like it out there, and that's very exciting," says a guy dressed in a cow suit, who later reveals himself to be 19-year-old Max Van Scoy.

The show's creators call themselves Nice Guys Productions, but it was being mistaken for bad guys that got them a dose of national publicity last month. Three of them were arrested Dec. 8 while filming a brief fight scene in the parking lot of a Hudson Falls drugstore.

Chris Phelps, 20, was in costume that day as the superhero character "Banana Boy," fighting off fellow cast member Luke Van Scoy, 17. Chris' brother, Jonathan Phelps, 27, was helping shoot the scene, intended for use in a montage of "Banana Boy saves the day" moments for the show's fourth episode. The police, however, mistook theatrics for reality.

When Van Scoy pulled out a plastic knife, the police officer pulled his gun and ordered the bewildered banana and his cohorts to hit the ground.

"I was just like, TV8! 'The Ravacon' show! Don't kill us!" Jonathan said. "I thought, Oh my God, I can't believe this is happening."

Although the guys were terrified at the time, they can see the humor of the situation in retrospect.

"He was supposed to be fighting off a punk, he wasn't supposed to ..." Jonathan trails off, laughing. "Basically, we had a trunk full of costumes, and a deadline. Then we got arrested -- that was bad."

Not all bad, as it turns out. The quirky news story caught the interest of major media outlets, and Nice Guys Productions suddenly found itself in the spotlight.

"Hey, there's no such thing as bad publicity, right?" said Jesse Jackson, co-owner of TV8.
Jackson, a former VH1 executive, is now using his connections to help the group shop "The Ravacon" to major television networks and film studios. He wouldn't disclose whether he's had any luck yet, but said he thinks the show has what it takes to become a hit.

"My gut tells me that we've got something," he said. "This show is art."

The members of Nice Guys Productions -- which includes two girls, despite the moniker -- grew up together in South Glens Falls, giving them a camaraderie that borders on clannishness. Most of them are in their late teens and early 20s, and all said they hope to pursue a career in film someday.

The group had been making short films for about five years when it caught Jackson's attention last year through Chris Phelps and Max Van Scoy, who both work at TV8.

"It became evident that they had something going on, so I asked to see some of their stuff," Jackson said. "They showed me a couple of videos, and I thought they were brilliant, just so original."

The group does most of its rehearsing in the backyard of the Phelps' home in South Glens Falls, where they've turned an old shed into what Jackson calls an "inner sanctum."

"Creative people need studios, and from the first time I climbed through the window (it doesn't have a door) I could see that they had a very creative space," he said. "They were firing on all cylinders."

New episodes of "The Ravacon" currently air at 11 p.m. every other Saturday, right after the local music show 8 Trax Live.

Although only five episodes of the 13-part series have been made so far, Jackson said he's seen enough to feel confident pitching "The Ravacon" to the big networks.

Banana Boy's legal troubles won't be too bruising, as it turns out. The judge has offered to drop the charges of disorderly conduct against the three young men if they each write a 1,000-word essay about what they learned from the case.

"It'll be interesting," said Jonathan Phelps. "If he doesn't like our essays, then I guess we fail and go to jail?"

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